Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Ontario Finance Minister Dwight
Duncan said he will release an economic update this month that
may include cost cuts to address “uncertain” times.

“There will be difficult decisions, difficult choices,”
Duncan told reporters today after a speech in Toronto at a
conference hosted by the Ontario Securities Commission. “I
think everybody’s going to have to put a little bit of water in
their wine as it were to deal with the realities that have
changed in the last several months.”

Duncan, who reiterated Ontario is on target to meet its
budget deficit forecast this year, said Canada’s largest
province will need to make “adjustments” based on market
conditions. Ontario needs to focus on spending to address “very
real challenges.”

“We are looking at some monumental change in how we do
business,” Duncan said in his speech.

Ontario’s rate of economic growth rate will be “modest for
an extended period,” Duncan told reporters.

“Europe is very uncertain, the economy in the United
States is not growing as quickly as most people thought it would
just six short months ago,” Duncan said. “Those are very real,
and they impact very much on our statements, on our revenues and
our expenditures.”

Ontario’s financial update may include input from a
commission announced in last year’s budget to reform the
province’s public service. The recommendations of the
commission, led by former Toronto-Dominion Bank Chief Economist
Don Drummond, will help develop the 2012 budget, Duncan said.
Drummond will present his early findings to Premier Dalton
McGuinty on Nov. 3, the minister said.